— Photo: V.V. Krishnan

A DAY TO REMEMBER: A jubilant Punjab team with the Santosh Trophy at the Gurgaon Sports Complex.

GURGAON: A disciplined and gritty Punjab won the Santosh Trophy, beating a crack Bengal combination 5-3 in the tie-breaker penalty shoot-out after the teams were locked goalless after regulation time and extra-time in the 61st National football championship here on Wednesday.

In what turned out to be a battle of the goalkeepers, Th. Kameshwar Singh made the all-important save, blocking Suman Datta's shot, to send the Punjab team into raptures.

After Datta missed Bengal's third penalty, Daljit shot a clean grounder to put Punjab 4-2 ahead before Harpreet Singh sealed the issue. The winner took home a cheque for Rs. five lakhs.

With strikers Parveen Kumar and Baldeep Singh relentlessly working upfront despite Bengal's patchy threats, Punjab clinched the title for the seventh time in its 12th final appearance. Both teams had their chances in regulation time and the 30-minute extra-time, but the goalkeepers thwarted all the efforts.

Bengal's third-choice custodian, Abhra Mondal of East Bengal, was impressive under the bar, especially in his debut appearance in the Nationals. In the tie-breaker, Parveen, Jaspal Singh, Narinder Singh, Daljit and Harpreet scored for Punjab while Dipendu Biswas, Sanjib Maria and Shyam Mondal were on target for Bengal.

Datta's low right-footer saw Kameshwar dive and punch the ball out. For Punjab, it was a grudge match after it had lost to Bengal in the 1994-95 final in Madras through a golden goal.

Punjab had more of the ball possession in the first half, but could not capitalise on any of the opportunities that came its way.

Bengal, too, had a handful of chances. The first was in the 14th minute when Nabi cut through from the right wing to feed Avinash Thapa, who set up Tapan Maity in the box. But Maity delayed while controlling the ball and the Punjab defenders surrounded him.

Punjab counter-attacked through Daljit, whose cross from the centre found Parveen in a good position. Parveen's feeble header hardly threatened Bengal goalkeeper Mondal, the hero of his team's semifinal win over Kerala, via penalty shoot-out, on Sunday.

Missed chance

Towards the end of the second half, Punjab put Bengal on the backfoot again but could not prevent the match from going into extra-time. Parveen was again in the forefront when he set up Jaswinder Singh in the 16th minute of extra-time. Jaswinder rushed up front, cutting past a defender but Mondal brought him down in the box with a fair and firm tackle.

Six minutes later, it seemed all over for Punjab when Syed Rahim Nabi tapped Ratan Das's rasping shot in, but the assistant referee ruled him off-side. That would have been unfair to Punjab which showed time and again that its entry into the final was no fluke.

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